General rational reductions of the KP hierarchy and their symmetries (Q1910980)

The Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation (KP equation) \[ \textstyle{{3\over 4}} u_{yy}+ (u_t-\textstyle{{3\over 4}} uu_x- \textstyle{{1\over 4}} u_{xxx})_x= 0 \] is a two-dimensional analogue of the famous Korteweg-de Vries equation. Historically, the KP equation was the first spatially two-dimensional nonlinear evolution equation that could be interpreted in the framework of commuting differential operators, and in this context it turned out to be a special case of an equation of Zakharov-Shabat type. This representation was used to construct an infinite set of nonlinear equations compatible with the KP equation. These equations, which form the so-called KP hierarchy, are equivalent to the differential equations for the coefficient functions (in countably may time variables) of countably many normalized ordinary differential operators \(L_n\) of order \(n\), \(n\geq 1\), satisfying the commutator relations \[ \Biggl[{\partial\over\partial t_m}- L_m, {\partial\over\partial t_n}- L_n\Biggr]=0. \] A very successful method to investigate the KP hierarchy was the reduction to stationary points of linear combinations of some of its flows, and the study of the invariant submanifolds, with respect to such a reduction, has led to the celebrated link between the KP hierarchy, the Novikov conjecture, and the Schottky problem. Now, in the present paper, the author shows the existence of another general reduction principle for the KP hierarchy. More precisely, for any pair \((m,n)\) of positive integers, he constructs the manifold \({\mathfrak K}_{m,n}\) of all pseudodifferential operators \(L\) satisfying an equation \(L^n=L^{-1}_1\cdot L_2\), where \(L_1\) and \(L_2\) are mutually coprime differential operators of degrees \(m\) and \(n+m\), respectively. Then it is shown (Theorem 1) that the manifolds \({\mathfrak K}_{m,n}\) of pseudodifferential operators are invariant with respect to the KP hierarchy, i.e., that they provide a new possibility for reductions of the KP hierarchy. Furthermore, the author derives operator equations which completely characterize the restrictions of the KP hiearchy to the invariant manifolds \({\mathfrak K}_{m,n}\) (Theorem 2), and he proves that these restrictions are compatible with certain Lax equations (Theorem 3). The author's new reduction method (i.e., the restriction of the KP hierarchy to the spaces \({\mathfrak K}_{m,n}\)) may be interpreted as a quantization of the corresponding algebraic orbits of the ``dispersionless'' KP hierarchy [the author, Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 47, No. 4, 437-475 (1994; Zbl 0811.58064)]. On the other hand, it looks now very interesting to construct algebro-geometric solutions of the KP hierarchy, with respect to these new general reductions, and to investigate their geometric significance. In this regard, the author refers to a forthcoming paper.